Air pressure; Cloud cover height and extent; Atmospheric humidity; Electrical conductivity of the water column; Wind strength and direction; Heat fluxes between the water column and the atmosphere; Long-wave radiation; Horizontal velocity of the water column (currents); Raw temperature and/or salinity instrument output; Solar Radiation

Instruments

Current meters; CTD; bathythermographs; balances and scales

Description

Summary

First Garp Global Experiment, the international project, in that it involved 23 countries, including USSR, Brazil, Great Britain, the USA, Germany, Mexico, The Netherlands, Canada, France, Portugal. The experiment was preceded by careful preliminary planning, which took into account the experience gained from other international projects. The USSR contribution to the FGGP oceanographic investigations was represented by 26 cruises in the tropical Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans undertaken by 14 major and medium research vessels from the Far East RIHMI, AARI, Odessa SOI, Southern Branch of IO RAS, MHI, GUNIO and Sakhalin Hydromet. All the objectives identified in the FGGE program were fulfilled, i.e. current observations as well as hydrological, hydrochemical, marine aerometeorological, geological and geophysical observations.
The resulting data of measurements quantifying the exchange of heat, chemical components, energy and water between the sea, atmosphere, and land in the tropical regions at different temporal and spatial resolutions as well as increased computer capabilities enhanced mathematical modelling of the thermodynamic processes, which contributed toward ongoing research efforts to improve long-range weather forecasts and to better understand short-term climate variability. Specifically, the high-density instrumental observations, afforded by the polygon method along sections in the tropical North Atlantic during intensive two-month observational periods in summer and winter seasons, made it possible to characterise the parameters of the annual variation in winter temperature and salinity in the upper 1000-m ocean layer, estimate the latitudinal advective heat transport, and describe the temporal variability of temperature and salinity in the main thermocline. In the western part of the Lomonosov Current, observations were conducted by ABSs within special polygons, each having a special separation of five miles, using the schemes 'snail' and 'comb'. These observations revealed high-salinity and high-temperature water lenes 15-30 km in diameter and 30 m thick in the 50-100 m layer.
New and vital results were also obtained in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.